Dübendorf's Unicorns

In order to recover from a stressful week of work, practice and Colin's birthday activities I announced I was going to hunt for unicorns on Sunday. Nobody in my family showed interest in joining me. Their loss.

Thanks to Franziska, a lovely Facebook friend and food blogger, I knew just about where to find some.

Dübendorf is a 30k citizen city in the North East of Zurich and very close to my favourite mall and the airport. 

Well known companies like Givaudan, HP or CSC have their HQs in the industrial part of the town. Accordingly it's a popular place to live. Interestingly Steffi Buchli grew up here. She's the sports reporter / sports channel manager whom Colin met last year, but more about that later.

Like any decent Swiss community, Dübendorf has a Verschönerungsverein. 

What on earth is that? It's an organisation of volunteers who are committed to make their town or village neat, attractive and exciting for citizens and tourists. Tasks range from installing and maintaining park benches and hiking trails to organising Swiss National Day barbecues or Christmas markets, or, in Dübendorf's case, launching a unicorn competition.

For the club's 100 years' anniversary they asked 50 enterprises or NPOs to decorate a blank unicorn. The reason is that in the town's flag there is a unicorn, pretty cool, right?

Enough with the talking already, let me show you what I found!

One of the first unicorns I encountered was of all things an astronaut! It's just outside the Innovation Park Zurich on the former airforce premises.

How cute is this little space corn?

I didn't pay attention to possible reasons why every single one was painted or decorated the way they are...

But this one was done by the local electric utility, and some body parts light up as it gets dark. So I may have to come back to see for myself...

Here's the first aid unicorn, cared for by the town's Samaritans.

Some of the unicorns are displayed at the Glatt Quai Park, along this peaceful creek.

This one sprays water through its horn to the fountain.

Airbrush unicorn

Not technically a unicorn, but it sure made me chuckle. Every year around Easter time, Chocolat Frey sells lots and lots of chocolate Easter bunnies in green, pink or blue metallic packaging. Looks like we have a giant leftover bunny here who wants to participate in the competition as well :-)

One of my favorite unicorns was this one. I guess it represents the forest as it looks like part deer, part birch?

This one advertises for a tattoo studio.

And here's a flower power unicorn

Not sure if this was on purpose or an incident. At first it looks like the horn chipped off. But then the animal is a horse anyway? And the horn is actually screwed to the bottom.

While strolling through town taking pictures, I expected a) Ally McBeal or b) Ouga Chaka Baby or both to make an appearance at any given moment.

It didn't happen. Instead I found out there's an actual Italian restaurant called "Unicorno"

This is money corn. A unicorn in front of the bank.

Where it all began. The original town unicorn watching over the fountain.

"How dull" this one said. "I want to be bright, so everyone notices me!"

Some people have a swing in their garden, or a hammock. These people keep unicorns.

Confetti unicorn at the train station.

This electrician company wrapped their unicorn entirely in cables.

Suddenly I was thinking there might be a unicorn at the ice rink. See, the friend Colin made last year at his Kids Career Day, plays for EHC Dübendorf. I have never been at their arena, but heck, I have a navigation system! Look!!! Hockey player unicorn!

Well, technically it's "Sports Unicorn", but who's counting.

Of course I took many more pictures. I managed to see about half of the displayed unicorns, but my parking meter was running out, plus I had to pee. 

I guess that's the moral of the story: 

It's all fine and magical as long as reality doesn't catch up ;-)

I hoped you like exploring with me. Let me know which one you liked best and what you think happened to the "horse".